Fanton, Melissa A., “Pinups and Pinball: The Sexualized Female Image in Pinball Artwork” (2016). Thesis. Rochester Institute of
https://scholarworks.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=10384&context=theses
Technology. Accessed from
Ran across this interesting thesis by Melissa A. Fanton from the Rochester Institue of Technology. Any pinball fan who has studied the artwork of pinball machines or played the chronological order of machines at a place like Fun Spot in NH where one can see the change in artwork over the years, certainly could get a feeling of the times changing from trying to attract nickels from Navy sailors on leave to quarters from teen boys at the arcade.
Especially when you contrast the difference between a Devil Dare or Gorgar in the 70s to something like Volley or Dominos from the 60s.
Today we mostly have carefully controlled license based machines created for mass appeal and protection of the movie or TV show the machine is based on. But before licensing, the artwork was more a free for all and reflected the desires of the would-be player, be it a pimple-faced adolescent boy or 45 year old private collector.